updated 09:00 am EDT, Wed June 17, 2009

LG 15in OLED TV in Late 09

LG today said it now plans to ship a 15-inch OLED TV sometime between December this year and January 2010. The screen, which may be made for a third-party instead of LG itself, should ship first to Korea but will be available in other countries soon afterwards. Its specifications haven't been made firm by LG VP of OLED sales Won Kim but, according to an interview with OLED-Info, will likely involve a higher resolution than the 960x540 (quarter HD) Sony XEL-1, which so far is the only commercially available stand-alone OLED display.

Next year should see some of the first regularly-sized displays of the kind, with Samsung and Sony both joining LG in developing displays nearing the 30-inch mark. OLEDs are believed to be the future of TVs as the pixels themselves are illuminated and don't need a backlight, producing much more accurate contrast; they also generate more realistic color, eliminate ghosting effects and use less energy. However, economies of scale for the exotic technology may keep OLED out of the mainstream for years.

At present, OLEDs are most common in smartphone-sized displays and are particularly common among Samsung phones like the i8910 or the future Omnia 2. [image viaEngadget]